


Age Is Just a Number

by VorpalGirl



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Adults, Aged-Up Character(s), Aging, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Existential Crisis, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Living Together, M/M, Netflix and Chill, Short One Shot, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 16:03:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6121912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VorpalGirl/pseuds/VorpalGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud is about to turn 30, and suddenly worried that he hasn't "done enough" with his life.  Zack reminds him what really matters. </p><p>(Modern AU, Established Relationship)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Age Is Just a Number

**Author's Note:**

> This got a fairly good response on my tumblr despite being posted in the middle of the night, so I figured I'd upload it here, hope you enjoy. :)
> 
> Minor TRIGGER WARNING: for mention of a broken bone. Nothing terribly gory or detailed and not even something that happens in-fic so much as just being referenced, but it's juuuust detailed enough of a reference that one of my betas advised warning just in case.

  
  
Cloud stared at the card in his hand.   
  
**_Happy Birthday!_** The front read, all bright colors and balloons and tastefully cheerful font.  
  
The inside was a note from his mother, with a promise that the attached package had “some of his favorites” in it, presumably cookies and candies and the like.   
  
He knew he shouldn’t feel _down_ at getting a present from his mother.

But the reminder that he was going to turn the big three-oh tomorrow was unexpectedly depressing. It probably wouldn’t be, if he’d gone pretty much anywhere with his life – but the sudden realization that he was literally about to be 30, and yet still stuck delivering packages for a living, was…kind of demoralizing.

He sighed, making a note to give her a call the next day and thank her for the gift. Reminder of his failures or not, it was still sweet and thoughtful of her and also she’d worry if she didn’t hear from him.  
  
A clatter at the door announced Zack’s arrival, pulling him momentarily out of his funk as he turned to greet him.  
  
“Hey,” he said, leaning his head back for a kiss.   
  
“Hey, youuu,” Zack replied, happily obliging.  
  
Cloud felt some of his worries melt away with the contact, and slipped one hand into Zack’s hair, the other arm wrapping firmly around his waist. He savored that gentle contact…for all of two seconds, before pressing a little more heatedly.   
  
Zack also obliged this, returning passion for passion with a soft “mm”, but he broke the kiss a moment later. Cloud frowned at the abrupt stop, but before he could ask why, Zack beat him to the punch:  
  
“What’s wrong?”  
  
Wow. Over the years, Zack had gotten to know him pretty damn well but from Zero to What’s Wrong in five seconds or less might be a new record.   
  
“I–” he almost said ‘nothing’, but…no, if it was that obvious, Zack would know he was lying. And would pester him until he told him why. So instead he sighed, and out of curiosity asked: “What gave me away?”  
  
“That greeting went from ‘Hello’ to ‘Kiss Me Hard, the World is Ending!’ in no time flat,” Zack replied, his tone teasing but gentle. “Which is flattering when I’ve spent ten minutes flirting like crazy with you from across the room, but worrying when I’ve only just walked in the door. So: what happened?”

Cloud blushed, and looked down, muttering: “I seemed…that clingy, huh?”  
  
“Aww,” Zack said, hugging him close. “Don’t do that, yeah? I didn’t think you were being ‘clingy’, just…in need of some reassurance. Which still begs the question of ‘reassurance for what?’ Hm?”   
  
“For…this, I guess,” Cloud said softly, pulling back the hand that he’d wrapped around Zack’s waist and revealing he offending funk-trigger.  
  
“A birthday card?” Zack said, tilting his head.   
  
“Yeah…” Cloud said, and something in his unenthusiastic tone prompted Zack to frown and pluck it from his fingers.  
  
“From your mom? I don’t get it,” Zack said, after flipping it open. “It’s not like it’s late or anything – your birthday isn’t until tomorrow. Is there something wrong with what she wrote? Or what she sent…?”  
  
Cloud sighed again. “No, nothing like that…it’s not anything she did or said, it’s the fact that I’m having a birthday at all,” he admitted.   
  
That got him a raised eyebrow. “Really? Seems better than the alternative…”  
  
Cloud snorted at that – though he also gave a gentle punch in the arm as reprimand. “ _Smartass._ I know that, but,” he let his forehead fall to Zack’s shoulder, craving the contact but not really wanting to look him in the eye. “It’s just…I feel like I’m getting older, without actually getting anywhere. You know?”  
  
“Ahh,” Zack said, in a tone that said something had finally clicked. He chuckled a moment later though. “Thirty is old now? That’s news to me,” he teased.   
  
Cloud’s cheeks burned at that – it was true, Zack was older than him, by over two years. “I didn’t say it was _old_ ,” he said, more than a tad defensively. “Just _older_.” He lifted his head enough to shoot a mild glare at him. “And I’m not wrong, either. We both know – “  
  
“Yes, yes, couldn’t pick a major in time to afford it, blue collar job that most idiots don’t think twice about, I’ve heard the spiel before, Cloud,” Zack met his eyes, his expression softly exasperated. “You’re not a failure just because you’re not some…millionaire astrophysicist or something.”  
  
Cloud grunted, in his own variant of exasperation. “Yeah, well, that’s easy to say for someone who gets to do something _useful_ with his life,” he muttered. “You’re _an ATC;_  that’s more than I’ve ever – “  
  
“So you think being part of the backbone of commerce and the guy who makes sure people’s birthday presents get there on time isn’t as important as treating a twisted ankle?” Zack said, raising another eyebrow.   
  
Cloud opened his mouth, trying to argue that somebody who treated a lot worse than ‘twisted ankles’ – dehydration, concussions, Zack had even told him once about a softball player who’d slid into home at just the wrong angle and snapped a femur, something that could have put her into _deadly_ shock if he hadn’t been there to diagnose it in time – was a tiny bit more important than a delivery guy...when Zack added, with a sly sort of look:  
  
“You wanna stop and think how we met?”  
  
That gave Cloud pause.  
  
“…I delivered a package of supplies to where you worked,” he said grudgingly.  
  
“Sorry…what kind of supplies? I didn’t catch that…” Zack said, cupping a hand near his ear and frowning far too ridiculously for it to be genuine.  
  
Cloud snorted, and buried his now-smiling face into Zack’s shoulder again. “ _Medical_ supplies,” he said. “Alright, alright, I get it! I’m not useless.”  
  
“That’s the spirit,” Zack said, plopping a kiss on top of his head. “So! I got an idea of what we can do tonight…”  
  
“Oh?”   
  
Zack grinned. “Did you know you can stream the original _Transformers_ cartoonson Netflix now?”  
  
Cloud almost choked. “What!?”  
  
“You can! And _Inspector Gadget._   _Pokemon_. Bunch of stuff like that. You feel old? Well, the cure for that is pizza and cartoons.”  
  
“You’re serious!” Cloud laughed.  
  
“Of course!” Zack said. “Would I suggest if it I weren’t?”  
  
“You want to _literally_ ‘Netflix and chill’?” Cloud said, snickering.   
  
“Unless you wanna turn it into the euphemistic kind,” Zack teased, eyebrows waggling.  
  
“Maybe later, Goofball,” Cloud teased. “I want that pizza, first.“  
  
Zack laughed, and hugged him again.“You and me both, Cutestuff. The usual place?”  
  
“Yeah,” Cloud said, as Zack gave another peck to his forehead.   
  
As he watched the love of his life – who he had met on the job, who he currently lived with, and who he was _definitely_ going to be enacting both versions of “Netflix and chill” with tonight – cheerfully flip through their take out menus, he decided maybe, just maybe, his life was not half bad.  
  
Fuck it. Age was just a number anyway, right?  
  
 

**Author's Note:**

> "ATC" stands for "Athletic Trainer, Certified". You can learn more about the profession [here](http://www.nata.org/athletic-training).


End file.
